Hello fellow LVA users.
My first trip report post.
Brief Bio. First went to Vegas in the spring of 1986 when I was a mere calf at age 22 and have been about 100 times since then. Finally decided to post a trip report because I have used some valuable ideas and tips from the great reports I've seen on this forum. So I hope somebody out there will be able to mine the gold from this one. Not fair for me to glean off others while not contributing some insights and info of my own.
Day 1 Saturday, Feb 12. My girlfriend and I leave DFW airport at 6:40 a.m. and take the 3 hour flight to Vegas airport. We got a great deal thru U.S. Airways so the cost was only $454.00 per person non-stop round trip and a 4 nite stay at the Golden Nugget Rush Tower.
We decided to rent a car at Fox(located on the strip) because the prices were much cheaper there than anywhere else according to our research. Had to take a shuttle to the regular rent-a-car center and then another shuttle to the Fox center. Didn't take very long since we arrived at about 7:45 in the a.m.
Once at the Rush Tower front desk I used my Landry's card to try and secure a junior suite. I got that advice from another poster here. Ordered the card a few weeks before and actually got the card in 4 days! Their junior suites were booked for that day but they upgraded us to a junior suite room for the next 3 nites. The biggest difference was the view. They are both worth it in our opinion. The pros for the Rush Tower are the showers. You could stand under those nice hot showers forever! Another positive was the comfortable beds and pillows. The junior suite has an extra plasma TV screen compared to the standard Rush Tower room. Everything is new with a bunch of clean towels to use. You didn't have to stand and wait for the elevator door for very long which was another nice aspect. No smoking rooms in the Rush Tower but why do they have Cigarette cans outside the elevators? The cons: No HBO or Showtime, etc... Only pay movies and somewhat limited channels. No coffee maker or mini fridge, like you would have at MGM Signature. I understand that they want you out of your room to play in the casino but other similar properties have those amenities. Another negative is that they charge you $12.99 plus tax for in room internet usage. I thought it would be free at the business center(located at the Carson Tower) but they charge you $5.00 for the 1st ten minutes or $25.00 per hour to use it there! lol NO THANKS
We were allowed to check in early then made our way to Fremont Street. I know this will sound like old school bitterness but it used to be that the games with the best odds were downtown. Unfortunately that is not the case any more. Of course I didn't go and play everywhere on Frement but it seemed that most haved copied the other rules making it more uniform than I ever remember. First LVA coupon I was going to use was going to be at Magnolias for breakfast but if you sign up for their players club card they give you a 2-1 comp for there. They also throw in a deck of cards for free. We had breakfast there and spent $11.00 for omelets. Not a bad deal!
After breakfast we walked over to Binions to play at my favorite place for blackjack. I was surprised to see only two tables open and they were both full. We then walked over to Fitzgeralds to play a few hands of low limit blackjack. They had a two dollar table open and we jumped in. After a few minutes my girlfriend got dealt what they used to call a BLACKJACK in this town. I watched in disbelief as she was only paid even money. I thought it was a mistake but the dealer stated that you will get 6-5 pay on a blackjack if you are betting $5.00 or more. What a ripoff! I decided to get up and go. They give you a "GET OUT OF HAND FREE" card for a bet of $25.00 or less. We didn't use them.
Later on in the afternoon we go to one of my favorite spots to have a beer. Main Street Station has really good micro brews for $1.50 at the bar there. We went on in to the Triple 777 brewpub and had fish tacos, greek salad, onion rings and sushi. All very good to go with our beer sampler. At least that hadn't changed.
Later that evening we used another 2-1 LVA coupon and saw Gordie Brown at the Nugget. Gordie is indeed very talented and the coupon made it a solid value in our own estimation. No more gambling this evening as we were tired from the long day.
Day 2 Sunday, Feb 13. Used our $50.00 all purpose comp and ate at Garduno's(I know, we didn't max our value). It was as good as I remembered. My girlfriend enjoyed it tremendously. We got there right as they opened so everything was hot and fresh. Even though I tried the flan as one poster suggested (it was good) the play for dessert was the chocolate and caramel waffle. That was unbelievably good!
We then drive to a place where my girlfriend has a timeshare. The name of the company is "BlueGreen" and their property is located on Tropicana right behind the MGM. Very nice property and may consider staying there on our next visit. Drove to MGM from there so I can act like a kid and get my candy fix at the M&M store. Where else can you overpay for any kind of M&M in existence? A few bags and $63.00 later we decided to go back downtown. Went by the pool and stuck our feet in the water in the top area called "The Hideout". Even though its called THE HIDEOUT a very secluded couple took them at their word and were doing some very indiscreet things near a palm tree! lol Very nice. They weren't charging folks $25.00-50.00 that day. Which was nice. The pool area at the Nugget is a lot nicer than I remembered.
We go back to the front desk and get upgraded to the junior suite that was promised us. So we take our stuff from the 10th to the 19 floor. In with the new paperwork for our new room was a flyer for a special at Vic & Anthony's. This unadvertised special was for in-room guests only I believe. Wasn't planning to eat here but we thought the deal for this caliber of steakhouse was tough to beat. For $46.95 per person you got the choice between soup or salad, 8 oz. Filet or Sea Bass, one side per person(we got scalloped potatoes & creamed spinach which were wonderful!) and choice of desert. I had the Crescent Bread Pudding while my girlfriend had the creme brulee. That's 3 total courses and a side each. We had regular water. Since I'm a wine advisor I'm not going to pay 3x markup on wines. Sorry just can't do it! The total cost plus tip was $120.00 which my girlfriend kindly paid for! Everything was outstanding along with the service and had zero complaints. As good as I heard it was. Once again no gambling. Still turned off by the new rules.
Monday, Feb, 14. This is another big day for us for a few reasons. One is that I'm going to ask my girlfriend to marry me, the other is we are driving back to the strip to finish off what we didn't see yesterday.
We go to the Excalibur to play in the 9:00 a.m. poker tourney. One of my favorite tourneys because the buy-in is only $25.00, or $35.00 to buy the extra thousand in playing chips. And meet a bunch of swell folks to boot. My girlfriend's 1st tourney. She gets knocked out on her 33 vs AQ when AA hit on the flop. I survive until the final two tables when I put my shortstack K,10 suited vs. JJ in the big blind. I let other players know at the table that if my girlfriend turns down my marriage proposal at "The Top of the World" and if they hear on the news of a 47 year old man jumping to his death they will be able to fill in the blanks from there. They wished me the best as we got in the car and drove to Caesar's.
Caesar's Palace used to be my favorite place in Vegas period. I don't know how many baseball games I bet there going while gliding across the entrance glancing up at the green and red scoreboards to see what my fate was. I pretty much shut it down there after they got rid of the "Bacchanal Room". Don't know how many meals I had there but when they sold that restaurant down the river for some noodle shop they had lost me for good. I'm sure some of you can fondly remember when the Old Caesar's palace actually lived up to being a Roman type venue. In my humble opinion, they could stick any name on it and it would be the same. It's lost its soul along the way like so many other themed joints. Back to the story, I took my girlfriend to the Forum Shops to look around and watch the Atlantis show, which she enjoyed.
Because of another smart poster, I actually went to autocollections.com and found the free passes to the Auto Show at Imperial Palace. I know this is still "Old Man's Syndrome" but I remembered when they passed those out front for free to anybody who dared to navigate through the heart of IP to the back, take the escalators while dodgingand timeshare reps to see this fantastic collection for free! Everybody we saw up there was paying to see the collection except for us. They were paying half price(about $5.00) but free is free is free if you can get it. Though the Auto collection was still good, it wasn't as good as I remembered it. Whatever happened to Hitler's touring car, Mussolini's escape car, Howard Hughes pure oygen added car, Al Capone's vehicle, Eisenhowers' presidential car...? So many cars I remembered are gone. In their place are seemingly normal cars for sale. Wow.
We use another LVA coupon and went to the Mirage Buffet for lunch. The lunch buffet was good with many eating stations. Cost about $20.00 total for the two of us using the 2-1 coupon. Was worth that for the price but don't know about it at $40.00. Just remember when the Rio buffet used to be so awesome it would have beat this one. They are really cutting back in this town!
Go back to Caesar's and to retrieve our car from the parking garage and drive back to the room for some rest. We have 4:30 p.m. reservations at The Top of the World. Get to the Top about 4:45. At about 5:00 p.m. the Sun starts to hide behind the mountains. I have ate there many times before by the way. Have heard the good and the bad about this restaurant but I've never had a bad meal there yet. The big difference here now is the price. The prices have skyrocketed not making it the value it used to be. Anyway, I have the Steak and Shrimp Scampi and she has the Tower Trio. Both very good, along with a couple of $14.00 margaritas. The disappointment for me is that they no longer have the Chocolate Tower anymore for dessert. Our server told us that the bean counters said they weren't making any profit on them because they were too expensive to make. I asked him this question? Why didn't they simply charge a couple dollars more and keep them? He and others had the same question. That used to be their signature thing. Customers hound them every single day about that and the staff is tired of answering the same question.
The PROPOSAL came after dinner when our server was handing us the dessert menus. If I could have taken a video camera and filmed the look on her face I could have gotten a million plus hits on UTube! lol Luckily for me she said YES and we went back to Rush for the rest of the eve.
Tuesday, Feb 15. Used 2-1 for Fremont breakfast buffet. Cost with tax for us both was $7.52 total. Very good price for breakfast, but no Eggs Benedict. Instead of doing what was originally planned we decided to find a good place to find rings. We went to the Outlet Mall not far off Bonneville Rd. Near downtown and just off I 95/15. The Zales Outlet was pretty expensive as was another jewelry store, even more so. We popped into Harry & Davids to look around and ran into a UPS deliveryman who gave us a place at the Meadows Mall that was much more reasonable than the places downtown or on the Strip. We immediately headed to the Meadows Mall and found the place called: Milano Diamond. The owner, David, gave us a price that was a fraction of what it would have been at most places. We bought the rings and were happy with the selections and the service David provided. We will be back!
After securing the rings, we went to Bally's/Paris and used another LVA coupon and ate at the Burger Brasserie at Paris. The burgers(I had the lamb burger) were good but expensive. We split an order of onion rings and it still cost $25.00(with tip) for the both of us.
We drove to The Sahara because they have billboards for their $1.00 blackjack tables. Since my now fiance is new to blackjack we decided to check it out. They do have several blackjack tables open(I counted 6) and were crowded. We finally get us a spot at the same table. I used the LVA gambling coupon as we joined their players club and used the $50/$40 coupon. They also give you a free drink ticket at the Thirsty Camel Bar for joining. You have to use the match play chips at $5.00 increments or more. Can't break them down for lesser denominations. Once again I start fuming after seeing that they wont even rate your play unless you are betting at least $5.00 minimum per hand with the same crappy blackjack rules that were at the Fitz. Also noticed a lady splitting AA on one particular deal. She gets an 8 on the 1st one and another A on the second. She goes to resplit and the dealer tells her disgustedly that she is not allowed to re-split that A. The dealer draws to a 19. She pushes one and loses the other. The way the cards fell on that hand she would have won all three splits and the dealer would have busted. I angrily got up from the table and went to the cashiers cage. Before that incident I was asking the dealer about surrendering on my 16 against her face up-card. She started laughing and said that you can't surrender the hand even though it was a shoe game. Didn't realize it was that funny. Other players started laughing too. I'd seen enough.
We drive back to Rush and go over to 777 Brewpub for our last meal. Was too tired to use our LVA coupon for the Mob Tour. Went to bed instead.
Wednesday, Feb, 16. Got up and used our last LVA coupon at Golden Nugget buffet. Very good breakfast. I judge breakfast buffets on them having Eggs Benedict or not. To me the sign of a good breakfast buffet will have that item for sure. I know its weird but that's been my experience. Went by the Fox rent-a-car on the South Strip and dropped our vehicle off and took two shuttles to the airport. Wind gusts in Vegas that day were up to 50 mph and we were wondering if our plane would fall apart on take-off from all of the wind! All in all, a most interesting trip.
MY RANT:
I do realize that I have "Oldschoolitis" when it comes to how things have changed in Vegas over the last couple of years. I heard a report on the local news that says 75% of home mortgages in Vegas are upside down. Couldn't believe it when I heard that. That's awful that so many people being adversely affected by the economy. I've heard for years that the Vegas bubble would pop by those in the know. It seemed they were all wrong until it happened. And boy did it happen on a biblical scale!
What gets me is this: How can the casino bean counters think that screwing over their loyal base will help them in the long run? Everybody loses with this type of thinking. Why even call the game Blackjack when you hit one its just like a regular hand. Instead of cleaning out customers in 8 hours they want to do it in 4. Do they think we are all that stupid? The dealers I talked to are genuinely disgusted with this about face in the treatment of customers by upper management. They lose out on more tips and other subsidies by this shortsighted nonsense! It makes their jobs even worse when they have to sit and explain these donk rules 100 times a day to the masses. I think they should change the name from Blackjack to 21. Would be fairer to those playing so they know what they are really getting. Those folks who just want to have fun, stretch their bankroll out a little further and have a few drinks to top it all off will find their time at the tables cut down considerably. They used to give funbooks to everyone but I noticed at the Rush Tower their funbooks were numbered and could not give them out to anybody but high rollers. The 1st joint that offers you an honest gamble will be the one that gets the most business and makes the most profits. All those smart people with shortsighted ideas probably haven't spent enough time on the floors (the frontline) talking to employee personnel or players to get a feel of how these things affect everyone. We didn't make maximum use of our coupons but that was our fault. Too for me to show her and not enough time or energy! lol
I will return to Vegas but it will be after I have researched the best places to gamble. That was the mistake I made this time in assuming things were the same. Won't make that mistake again. Maybe Vegas won't be what it used to be. But instead of driving the customer base away perhaps they will have a Renaissance and go back to the way it was when they knew your name when they saw you. The little things that are customer service that they have forgot about in my humble opinion. We did make good use of the LVA coupons but still have many more unused ones for a further trip. Thanks again Anthony Curtis and LVA staff for putting together another outstanding book!
My first trip report post.
Brief Bio. First went to Vegas in the spring of 1986 when I was a mere calf at age 22 and have been about 100 times since then. Finally decided to post a trip report because I have used some valuable ideas and tips from the great reports I've seen on this forum. So I hope somebody out there will be able to mine the gold from this one. Not fair for me to glean off others while not contributing some insights and info of my own.
Day 1 Saturday, Feb 12. My girlfriend and I leave DFW airport at 6:40 a.m. and take the 3 hour flight to Vegas airport. We got a great deal thru U.S. Airways so the cost was only $454.00 per person non-stop round trip and a 4 nite stay at the Golden Nugget Rush Tower.
We decided to rent a car at Fox(located on the strip) because the prices were much cheaper there than anywhere else according to our research. Had to take a shuttle to the regular rent-a-car center and then another shuttle to the Fox center. Didn't take very long since we arrived at about 7:45 in the a.m.
Once at the Rush Tower front desk I used my Landry's card to try and secure a junior suite. I got that advice from another poster here. Ordered the card a few weeks before and actually got the card in 4 days! Their junior suites were booked for that day but they upgraded us to a junior suite room for the next 3 nites. The biggest difference was the view. They are both worth it in our opinion. The pros for the Rush Tower are the showers. You could stand under those nice hot showers forever! Another positive was the comfortable beds and pillows. The junior suite has an extra plasma TV screen compared to the standard Rush Tower room. Everything is new with a bunch of clean towels to use. You didn't have to stand and wait for the elevator door for very long which was another nice aspect. No smoking rooms in the Rush Tower but why do they have Cigarette cans outside the elevators? The cons: No HBO or Showtime, etc... Only pay movies and somewhat limited channels. No coffee maker or mini fridge, like you would have at MGM Signature. I understand that they want you out of your room to play in the casino but other similar properties have those amenities. Another negative is that they charge you $12.99 plus tax for in room internet usage. I thought it would be free at the business center(located at the Carson Tower) but they charge you $5.00 for the 1st ten minutes or $25.00 per hour to use it there! lol NO THANKS
We were allowed to check in early then made our way to Fremont Street. I know this will sound like old school bitterness but it used to be that the games with the best odds were downtown. Unfortunately that is not the case any more. Of course I didn't go and play everywhere on Frement but it seemed that most haved copied the other rules making it more uniform than I ever remember. First LVA coupon I was going to use was going to be at Magnolias for breakfast but if you sign up for their players club card they give you a 2-1 comp for there. They also throw in a deck of cards for free. We had breakfast there and spent $11.00 for omelets. Not a bad deal!
After breakfast we walked over to Binions to play at my favorite place for blackjack. I was surprised to see only two tables open and they were both full. We then walked over to Fitzgeralds to play a few hands of low limit blackjack. They had a two dollar table open and we jumped in. After a few minutes my girlfriend got dealt what they used to call a BLACKJACK in this town. I watched in disbelief as she was only paid even money. I thought it was a mistake but the dealer stated that you will get 6-5 pay on a blackjack if you are betting $5.00 or more. What a ripoff! I decided to get up and go. They give you a "GET OUT OF HAND FREE" card for a bet of $25.00 or less. We didn't use them.
Later on in the afternoon we go to one of my favorite spots to have a beer. Main Street Station has really good micro brews for $1.50 at the bar there. We went on in to the Triple 777 brewpub and had fish tacos, greek salad, onion rings and sushi. All very good to go with our beer sampler. At least that hadn't changed.
Later that evening we used another 2-1 LVA coupon and saw Gordie Brown at the Nugget. Gordie is indeed very talented and the coupon made it a solid value in our own estimation. No more gambling this evening as we were tired from the long day.
Day 2 Sunday, Feb 13. Used our $50.00 all purpose comp and ate at Garduno's(I know, we didn't max our value). It was as good as I remembered. My girlfriend enjoyed it tremendously. We got there right as they opened so everything was hot and fresh. Even though I tried the flan as one poster suggested (it was good) the play for dessert was the chocolate and caramel waffle. That was unbelievably good!
We then drive to a place where my girlfriend has a timeshare. The name of the company is "BlueGreen" and their property is located on Tropicana right behind the MGM. Very nice property and may consider staying there on our next visit. Drove to MGM from there so I can act like a kid and get my candy fix at the M&M store. Where else can you overpay for any kind of M&M in existence? A few bags and $63.00 later we decided to go back downtown. Went by the pool and stuck our feet in the water in the top area called "The Hideout". Even though its called THE HIDEOUT a very secluded couple took them at their word and were doing some very indiscreet things near a palm tree! lol Very nice. They weren't charging folks $25.00-50.00 that day. Which was nice. The pool area at the Nugget is a lot nicer than I remembered.
We go back to the front desk and get upgraded to the junior suite that was promised us. So we take our stuff from the 10th to the 19 floor. In with the new paperwork for our new room was a flyer for a special at Vic & Anthony's. This unadvertised special was for in-room guests only I believe. Wasn't planning to eat here but we thought the deal for this caliber of steakhouse was tough to beat. For $46.95 per person you got the choice between soup or salad, 8 oz. Filet or Sea Bass, one side per person(we got scalloped potatoes & creamed spinach which were wonderful!) and choice of desert. I had the Crescent Bread Pudding while my girlfriend had the creme brulee. That's 3 total courses and a side each. We had regular water. Since I'm a wine advisor I'm not going to pay 3x markup on wines. Sorry just can't do it! The total cost plus tip was $120.00 which my girlfriend kindly paid for! Everything was outstanding along with the service and had zero complaints. As good as I heard it was. Once again no gambling. Still turned off by the new rules.
Monday, Feb, 14. This is another big day for us for a few reasons. One is that I'm going to ask my girlfriend to marry me, the other is we are driving back to the strip to finish off what we didn't see yesterday.
We go to the Excalibur to play in the 9:00 a.m. poker tourney. One of my favorite tourneys because the buy-in is only $25.00, or $35.00 to buy the extra thousand in playing chips. And meet a bunch of swell folks to boot. My girlfriend's 1st tourney. She gets knocked out on her 33 vs AQ when AA hit on the flop. I survive until the final two tables when I put my shortstack K,10 suited vs. JJ in the big blind. I let other players know at the table that if my girlfriend turns down my marriage proposal at "The Top of the World" and if they hear on the news of a 47 year old man jumping to his death they will be able to fill in the blanks from there. They wished me the best as we got in the car and drove to Caesar's.
Caesar's Palace used to be my favorite place in Vegas period. I don't know how many baseball games I bet there going while gliding across the entrance glancing up at the green and red scoreboards to see what my fate was. I pretty much shut it down there after they got rid of the "Bacchanal Room". Don't know how many meals I had there but when they sold that restaurant down the river for some noodle shop they had lost me for good. I'm sure some of you can fondly remember when the Old Caesar's palace actually lived up to being a Roman type venue. In my humble opinion, they could stick any name on it and it would be the same. It's lost its soul along the way like so many other themed joints. Back to the story, I took my girlfriend to the Forum Shops to look around and watch the Atlantis show, which she enjoyed.
Because of another smart poster, I actually went to autocollections.com and found the free passes to the Auto Show at Imperial Palace. I know this is still "Old Man's Syndrome" but I remembered when they passed those out front for free to anybody who dared to navigate through the heart of IP to the back, take the escalators while dodgingand timeshare reps to see this fantastic collection for free! Everybody we saw up there was paying to see the collection except for us. They were paying half price(about $5.00) but free is free is free if you can get it. Though the Auto collection was still good, it wasn't as good as I remembered it. Whatever happened to Hitler's touring car, Mussolini's escape car, Howard Hughes pure oygen added car, Al Capone's vehicle, Eisenhowers' presidential car...? So many cars I remembered are gone. In their place are seemingly normal cars for sale. Wow.
We use another LVA coupon and went to the Mirage Buffet for lunch. The lunch buffet was good with many eating stations. Cost about $20.00 total for the two of us using the 2-1 coupon. Was worth that for the price but don't know about it at $40.00. Just remember when the Rio buffet used to be so awesome it would have beat this one. They are really cutting back in this town!
Go back to Caesar's and to retrieve our car from the parking garage and drive back to the room for some rest. We have 4:30 p.m. reservations at The Top of the World. Get to the Top about 4:45. At about 5:00 p.m. the Sun starts to hide behind the mountains. I have ate there many times before by the way. Have heard the good and the bad about this restaurant but I've never had a bad meal there yet. The big difference here now is the price. The prices have skyrocketed not making it the value it used to be. Anyway, I have the Steak and Shrimp Scampi and she has the Tower Trio. Both very good, along with a couple of $14.00 margaritas. The disappointment for me is that they no longer have the Chocolate Tower anymore for dessert. Our server told us that the bean counters said they weren't making any profit on them because they were too expensive to make. I asked him this question? Why didn't they simply charge a couple dollars more and keep them? He and others had the same question. That used to be their signature thing. Customers hound them every single day about that and the staff is tired of answering the same question.
The PROPOSAL came after dinner when our server was handing us the dessert menus. If I could have taken a video camera and filmed the look on her face I could have gotten a million plus hits on UTube! lol Luckily for me she said YES and we went back to Rush for the rest of the eve.
Tuesday, Feb 15. Used 2-1 for Fremont breakfast buffet. Cost with tax for us both was $7.52 total. Very good price for breakfast, but no Eggs Benedict. Instead of doing what was originally planned we decided to find a good place to find rings. We went to the Outlet Mall not far off Bonneville Rd. Near downtown and just off I 95/15. The Zales Outlet was pretty expensive as was another jewelry store, even more so. We popped into Harry & Davids to look around and ran into a UPS deliveryman who gave us a place at the Meadows Mall that was much more reasonable than the places downtown or on the Strip. We immediately headed to the Meadows Mall and found the place called: Milano Diamond. The owner, David, gave us a price that was a fraction of what it would have been at most places. We bought the rings and were happy with the selections and the service David provided. We will be back!
After securing the rings, we went to Bally's/Paris and used another LVA coupon and ate at the Burger Brasserie at Paris. The burgers(I had the lamb burger) were good but expensive. We split an order of onion rings and it still cost $25.00(with tip) for the both of us.
We drove to The Sahara because they have billboards for their $1.00 blackjack tables. Since my now fiance is new to blackjack we decided to check it out. They do have several blackjack tables open(I counted 6) and were crowded. We finally get us a spot at the same table. I used the LVA gambling coupon as we joined their players club and used the $50/$40 coupon. They also give you a free drink ticket at the Thirsty Camel Bar for joining. You have to use the match play chips at $5.00 increments or more. Can't break them down for lesser denominations. Once again I start fuming after seeing that they wont even rate your play unless you are betting at least $5.00 minimum per hand with the same crappy blackjack rules that were at the Fitz. Also noticed a lady splitting AA on one particular deal. She gets an 8 on the 1st one and another A on the second. She goes to resplit and the dealer tells her disgustedly that she is not allowed to re-split that A. The dealer draws to a 19. She pushes one and loses the other. The way the cards fell on that hand she would have won all three splits and the dealer would have busted. I angrily got up from the table and went to the cashiers cage. Before that incident I was asking the dealer about surrendering on my 16 against her face up-card. She started laughing and said that you can't surrender the hand even though it was a shoe game. Didn't realize it was that funny. Other players started laughing too. I'd seen enough.
We drive back to Rush and go over to 777 Brewpub for our last meal. Was too tired to use our LVA coupon for the Mob Tour. Went to bed instead.
Wednesday, Feb, 16. Got up and used our last LVA coupon at Golden Nugget buffet. Very good breakfast. I judge breakfast buffets on them having Eggs Benedict or not. To me the sign of a good breakfast buffet will have that item for sure. I know its weird but that's been my experience. Went by the Fox rent-a-car on the South Strip and dropped our vehicle off and took two shuttles to the airport. Wind gusts in Vegas that day were up to 50 mph and we were wondering if our plane would fall apart on take-off from all of the wind! All in all, a most interesting trip.
MY RANT:
I do realize that I have "Oldschoolitis" when it comes to how things have changed in Vegas over the last couple of years. I heard a report on the local news that says 75% of home mortgages in Vegas are upside down. Couldn't believe it when I heard that. That's awful that so many people being adversely affected by the economy. I've heard for years that the Vegas bubble would pop by those in the know. It seemed they were all wrong until it happened. And boy did it happen on a biblical scale!
What gets me is this: How can the casino bean counters think that screwing over their loyal base will help them in the long run? Everybody loses with this type of thinking. Why even call the game Blackjack when you hit one its just like a regular hand. Instead of cleaning out customers in 8 hours they want to do it in 4. Do they think we are all that stupid? The dealers I talked to are genuinely disgusted with this about face in the treatment of customers by upper management. They lose out on more tips and other subsidies by this shortsighted nonsense! It makes their jobs even worse when they have to sit and explain these donk rules 100 times a day to the masses. I think they should change the name from Blackjack to 21. Would be fairer to those playing so they know what they are really getting. Those folks who just want to have fun, stretch their bankroll out a little further and have a few drinks to top it all off will find their time at the tables cut down considerably. They used to give funbooks to everyone but I noticed at the Rush Tower their funbooks were numbered and could not give them out to anybody but high rollers. The 1st joint that offers you an honest gamble will be the one that gets the most business and makes the most profits. All those smart people with shortsighted ideas probably haven't spent enough time on the floors (the frontline) talking to employee personnel or players to get a feel of how these things affect everyone. We didn't make maximum use of our coupons but that was our fault. Too for me to show her and not enough time or energy! lol
I will return to Vegas but it will be after I have researched the best places to gamble. That was the mistake I made this time in assuming things were the same. Won't make that mistake again. Maybe Vegas won't be what it used to be. But instead of driving the customer base away perhaps they will have a Renaissance and go back to the way it was when they knew your name when they saw you. The little things that are customer service that they have forgot about in my humble opinion. We did make good use of the LVA coupons but still have many more unused ones for a further trip. Thanks again Anthony Curtis and LVA staff for putting together another outstanding book!
